Chris Bishop, September 2024.
This article expands on a 2010 article about the history of bridges over the Lower Collie River, including new information and re-interpretation of the available evidence. In 2010, and at the time a new and the fourth bridge was constructed over the Collie River near its mouth, Irma Walter described the design and placement of the four bridges. The previous three bridges were constructed in 1848, 1911 and 1962.[1]
Evidence suggests that regional communities of Noongar moved particularly along the Brunswick/Collie River floodplain systems, and the estuary foreshore. Some of their practical travel routes would be used by the early European immigrants. [see ‘Clifton Park – A Riverside Community’ on this website.] Doctor Collie and Lieutenant Preston’s 1829 exploration journal recorded:
There are two mouths to the river, with a low sandy island between them and the one we entered; the westernmost was afterwards found the least shallow. A second island is formed in the river, not a mile up, and the water rather shallow, affording a good crossing place for the natives. About half a mile above this, the water being perfectly fresh, we filled our barricoes, and soon had our native friends around us.[2]
An explanatory map drawn by J Cameron, of what was termed ‘Clifton Country’, was presented as part of the Introduction to the official correspondence of Marshall Waller Clifton.[3] This illustrates the alignment of what is called the Bunbury Mandurah Road. It indicates this road crossing the Collie River a short distance upstream of Alexander Island. A 1846 nautical chart of ‘Koombanah (Koombana) Bay and Leschenault Inlet’ shows this same route crossing the upstream point of Alexander Island.[4]
The evidence accords with the reference above of there being a good crossing point for Noongar at this place. It would also align with a practical route that skirted the flood prone, muddy, sticky and difficult to traverse wetlands at the mouth of the Collie River. It used elevated ground on Greenwood farm, passing close to the subsequent location of the farmhouse. Greenwood was outside of land controlled by the Western Australian Company. Therefore there would have been resistance over time to the road servicing the Western Australian Company’ Australind settlement cutting across Greenwood land.[5] This likely influenced the alternative use of the informal ford around the mouth of the Collie River.
Prior to completion of the first bridge across the lower Collie River in 1848, there are therefore two locations to ford or cross the river. One being via the previously described eastern tip of Alexander Island, and the other around the mouth of the Collie River, favoured by Europeans on horseback. The latter is described in June 1841 as follows:
Dr Carpenter was sent for at 10 to see Mrs Macashen, Mr Eliot‘s shepherd’s wife whom he has several times seen. It was quite a dangerous undertaking to cross the Collie such a night as this without a native or companion. The ford is nearly a mile[6] across the 2 mouths of the river, halfway out into the estuary and at this time of the year the water reaches to the top of the saddle. Dr Carpenter is accustomed to these expeditions now.[7]
Annotated extract from 1846 nautical chart of ‘Koombanah (Koombana) Bay and Leschenault Inlet.’[8]
This crossing point appears inherently more dangerous than the Alexander Island crossing, and only safely useable by a person on horseback. Dangerous due to shifting bottom sediments, strong currents and cross currents, wave creation where the river current meets the estuary, or when strong onshore winds create them. Prior to construction of the 1848 bridge, the two river crossings or the use of a boat provided the only reasonably direct and practicable routes between Australind and Bunbury.
Neither of the two river crossings were safe, nor did they allow a horse with wagon or hand drawn cart to use them. Marshall Waller Clifton records a horse cart going to Bunbury and returning with a ‘heavy load of things’ on 6 Sep 1848. This cart must have taken the overly long inland route over the newly constructed Brunswick River Bridge.[9]
These travel restrictions led to pressure by Australind settlers to build a bridge across the lower Collie River, to access the Bunbury port. Construction began on 9 September 1848. The last pylon was driven in on 23 October 1848. The construction of the 1848 Bridge and its approaches changed Australind to Bunbury travel appreciably.[10]
The 1904 map shows the location of the 1848 Bridge across the Collie River and is called the Lower Collie Bridge on the map. This bridge enhanced the lives of the local population, allowing greater social interaction between families on isolated farms such as Greenwood (Hurst’s farm on 1904 map). This reoriented the interaction of Australind with its hinterland, although the road to Bunbury could still be boggy and flooded in winter. The 1904 map indicates that heading southwards on an angle across Point Douro, and after crossing the 1848 Bridge, the road sharply turned to follow back up the southern bank of the Collie River, before rejoining the current road alignment towards Bunbury. This major detour seems counterintuitive. A hypothesis that might explain this is that it was a result of the limited available manpower, machinery and budget, and the aim to avoid a low lying boggy clay wetland, if the bridge was otherwise placed on the direct line of travel.
Annotated extract from larger 1904 map by PR Ricardo.[11]
The official record says that there is no physical remains of the 1848 Bridge. This is not correct. A 2010 editorial footnote to the Waller Clifton Journals states that ‘remnants were still visible on the right bank in recent memory.’[12]
The official Heritage Council entry records that ‘there is no remnant material or evidence of the 1840s timber bridge’. Remnant timber from the 1962 Bridge is stated as being incorporated into the lower timber walkway, mooring posts and fishing platforms adjacent to the present road bridge. The 1962 timber bridge was constructed of jarrah logs spanning between jarrah piles driven into the river bed with bracings of sawn timber. The timber plank walkway is supported on a superstructure of sawn timber lengths and steel and there is an open timber balustrade to each side.[13]
A 2024 site visit by the author found remains of the 1848 Bridge. There was a compacted gravel, rock and clay northern access ramped road, and a line of four near-shore jarrah timber stumps. Photographs of these remains are shown below. These pylons were square cut to expose the tougher heartwood and reduce the risk of Teredo worm wood borer damage.[14] (William) Pearce Clifton, who instigated the use of square cut jarrah timber for the bridge, was a man of high ability and vision, and had a good understanding of jarrah timber and how to use it.[15]
The four stumps are the only known physical remnants of the timber bridge structure, as nothing is evident on the southern side of the river and there was a major removal of stumps (deemed a shipping hazard) in about 1967. The jarrah piles were driven in through compressed wool bales, which led to sometime use of the name ‘Woolbales’ for the vicinity of the bridge. [see ‘Clifton Park-A Riverside Community’ on this website]
There are two reasons wool bales may have been used. The first is that a wool bale was known to provide a stable physical base for pile driving, particularly in sandy sediments.[16] The other is that lanolin, that comes from sheep’s wool, was known to provide a coating for protecting ship timber decking, jetties, and piers.
Using the 1904 map and knowledge of Point Douro topography, the alignment across Point Douro followed a minor (less than 10 cm above surrounds) sandy ridge that curved across the samphire wetland, and met the river at a narrow and likely shallow part. The narrow raised ridge, with some additional fill, kept the road above most high tide flooding.
At this point, it is important to note that water transport was much more favoured by early European settlers of Australind, than using land routes. This is particularly for the transport of easily damaged (e.g. food), heavy and bulky supplies from supply ships anchored in Koombana Bay (Bunbury). Indicative of this, is that for the Western Australian Company area at Australind in May 1841, there are listed five ‘company’ owned boats (one a heavy whaleboat, and one a ‘small, flat boat’ used for ferrying persons across the Brunswick behind Australind), and five privately owned boats (all heavy whaleboats) for communication with Bunbury. In contrast only five ponies/horses (and 1 foal) were available for land transport.[17]
The next bridge to be built was that of 1911. The availability of heavier duty earth moving machinery, allowed the access road and bridge to be built on a more direct alignment. Subsequently, lifts to the height of the causeway from the north, increasingly constricted river flood movement along the northern bank of the river flood plain. A 1979 reconstruction of the northern abutment to the 1964 bridge was ‘shown to be a major flow barrier’ for flood flows.[18]
The position and history of Lower Collie River bridges and crossings, are both a product and a driver of regional European settler social history.
Line of four jarrah timber stumps of 1848 Bridge.
Compacted gravel, rock and clay northern access ramp to 1848 Bridge (looking south towards Collie River).
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[1] Irma Walter, Collie River Bridge Story, Harvey History Online, 2010, viewed 5 August 2024, https://www.harveyhistoryonline.com/?p=3527
[2] Joseph Cross (ed), Journals of Several Expeditions made in Western Australia during the Years 1829, 1830, 1831 and 1832. A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook, first posted online in 2013, viewed 9 April 2024, https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1304331h.html
[3] JMR Cameron & PA Barnes, (Eds), The Australind Letters of Marshall Waller Clifton, Chief Commissioner for the Western Australian Company, Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, WA, 2017, Figure 1.
[4] Great Britain. Hydrographic Dept & Stokes, J. Lort & Bate, R. B & J. & C. Walker. 1846, Australia, West Coast, Koombanah Bay and Leschenault Inlet. Published according to Act of Parliament at the Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty : Sold by R.B. Bate, Agent for the Admiralty charts, 21 Poultry and Royal Exchange East, London viewed 16 August 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-233816562
[5] The Western Australian Company was an English listed share company that acquired Colonel Latour’s Wellington Location 1, to found the settlement of Australind. The directors appointed Mr Marshall Waller Clifton as Chief Commissioner to take charge of the proposed settlement scheme, see GE Clarke, The Australind Settlement, Harvey History Online, 1946, viewed 5 August 2024, https://www.harveyhistoryonline.com/?p=3187#_ftnref1
[6] 1.61 kilometres, which if accurate, is a long arc around the mouth of the river.
[7] Diary of Louisa Clifton, viewed 17 August 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-573413088 p71
[8] Great Britain. Hydrographic Dept & Stokes, J. Lort & Bate, R. B & J. & C. Walker. 1846, Australia, West Coast, Koombanah Bay and Leschenault Inlet.
[9] Phyllis Barnes, JMR Cameron and HA Willis, (Eds) with Ian Berryman and Andrew Gill, The Australind Journals of Marshall Waller Clifton 1840-1861, Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, WA, 2017, p 320.
[10] Barnes, Cameron and Willis, The Australind Journals of Marshall Waller Clifton 1840-1861, p. 324.
[11] Western Australia Commonwealth Military Forces, Zone of Operations, [cartographic Material] Staff Ride: Brunswick, August 1904, map compiled by Colonel PR Ricardo CB, HJ Pether, Government Photolitholographer, Perth, WA, 1904.
[12] Barnes, Cameron and Willis, The Australind Journals of Marshall Clifton 1840-1861, p.320
[13] https://inherit.dplh.wa.gov.au/public/inventory/details/11c18063-452d-4f47-87da-eae8da93724d Place name is Lower Collie River Bridge, and place number is 11966.
[14] Teredo worm are marine bivalve molluscs in the family Teredinidae, a group of saltwater clams with long, soft, naked bodies. They are notorious for boring into (and commonly eventually destroying) wood that is immersed in seawater.
[15] 1880 ‘Department of Public Works, Perth, Jan. 12th, 1880.’, The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), 27 January, p. 2. , viewed 14 Aug 2024, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2982485
[16] https://inherit.dplh.wa.gov.au/public/inventory/details/11c18063-452d-4f47-87da-eae8da93724d
[17] Cameron & Barnes, The Australind Letters of Marshall Waller Clifton, Chief Commissioner for the Western Australian Company, , p.142.
[18] Water Authority of Western Australia, Letter to Bunbury Region Plan Technical Committee and attached report entitled, Report to the Bunbury Region Plan Technical Committee- Development Strategy at the Mouth of the Collie River – The Compromise Floodway Option, 1985.